The SpiritLed Woman podcast is empowering women weekly to follow their purpose in Christ and boldly walk in faith. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.

4. Negotiating terms. One of the easiest ways to lower your payments is to tell the credit card company you want to consolidate your loans through another lending institution if you can't get the interest rate down on the card you currently have. Many customer service representatives are authorized to lower the interest rates right there on the phone for you, and you could save anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars.

5. Personal loans. This is an option only for those who have undamaged credit and who would qualify for an unsecured loan. The interest rates won't be as low as some of the other options, but they are usually less than the 20 percent-plus you are now paying the credit card company.

6. The old standbys. For a qualified financial counselor, do a Google search for Consumer Credit Counseling Services (CCCS). They are nationwide.

Be sure you call the nonprofit organization and not a for-profit lookalike. These are different from the for-profit debt consolidation companies in that their services are free (and confidential). Their initial consultation (by phone or in person) usually lasts an hour and will help you decide if you need a debt-management plan. To use their services, you must fill out a form that details all your expenses.

CCCS will walk you through the experience of seeing these stretched out over the course of a year. They will tell you if you can pay off your debt without their help.

Face the Facts

A critical part of assessing your situation is to list pertinent information on columnar paper. You'll need to order a copy of your credit report from one of these national credit bureaus: Experian (experian.com, 1-888-397-3742); TransUnion Corp. (transunion.com, 1-800-888-4213); or Equifax (equifax.com, 1-800-685-1111). After you receive your report, use it as an information source for the following:

Creditors

Balance on each account

Minimum payment

Number of payments left

Interest rate

Due date

When this information has been documented in one place, it will be easier to ascertain your true debt load and develop a systematic plan to get out of debt. This is something you can do at home or have CCCS do in their offices.

Cut Costs

The most effective thing you can do to resolve debt is reduce your committed expenses (housing, utilities, transportation, groceries, phone and so on). But for right now, focus on those monthly expenses that are not fixed.

advertisement

It's not enough to cut costs if you're not committed to applying these savings to credit card debt. The savings will just be absorbed into spending elsewhere unless you earmark these cuts to go to specific debt.

A more dramatic approach would be to reduce your fixed expenses by trading down in a home and/or car in order to get out of debt. This is an issue that you will need to decide based on your specific situation.

Use Credit Responsibly

You want a card that charges a low, fixed interest rate (not merely a temporary introductory rate) and has no annual fee. Don't be deceived by some of the "reward" cards. For example, most cards that offer frequent-flier miles require that you earn 25,000 miles (at one mile per dollar, that's $25,000 spent) in order to buy one ticket (which averages $250 to $300).

Draw closer to God. Experience the presence of the Holy Spirit every month as you read Charisma magazine. Sign up now to get Charisma for as low as $1 per issue.

Get to know the Holy Spirit and how to interact with Him on a daily basis. Learn to enter God's presence and hear His voice clearly for yourself! Go deeper in your faith with Life in the Spirit and change your life and destiny. Are you ready to start your journey?

Your Turn

Please be considerate and respectful of your fellow posters. If Jesus and your mother would not approve of your writing, you should revise your comment before submitting.

Use standard writing style and punctuation. Complete sentences and proper grammar will help others understand you.

Do not use profanity, obscenities, abusive language or otherwise objectionable content (as determined by Charisma Media moderators, in their sole discretion). Comments should not harass, abuse or threaten another's personal safety or property, make false statements, defame or impersonate someone else.

Do not question others' faith just because you disagree with them. It adds nothing to the discussion and only causes strife.

Do not question why someone comes to this website just because they disagree with you or the content of the article.

Do not post personal information including phone numbers, email or mailing addresses, or credit card information belonging to you or others.

Do not include copyrighted content or other intellectual property that you do not own or have the explicit rights or lisenses to distribute.

Do not post, directly or through links, viruses, misleading, malicious or off-topic content.

Please consider the following statements pertaining to comments posted by you and other visitors to our website:

Appearance of comments, advertisements or hyperlinks made by other commenters on this site do not necessarily indicate or constitute acceptance of or endorsement of the products, companies, corporations, ministries, organizations or agencies in whole or in part by staff members and/or the members of the editorial board of Charisma Media.

Comments are not pre-screened before they post. Charisma Media reserves the right to modify or remove any comment that does not comply with the above guidelines and to deny access of your Disqus account to make additional comments to the website without any notice. If you have been denied access to comment due to a violation of these terms please do not create multiple accounts in an attempt to circumvent the system. The correct course of action is to request a review of your account status by contacting webmaster@charismamedia.com.

Charisma Media is not responsible or liable in any way for comments posted by its users.

If you believe a comment is in violation of the above guidelines, U.S. law or International treaties, or is legitimate "trolling" please flag the post or contact webmaster@charismamedia.com. Include a link to the comment, along with a statement explaining what you believe the violation is and any evidence backing your claim. Charisma Media moderators will consider your request and decide on the most appropriate action.